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Posted

It's nothing special but I've started playing Olympia Soiree recently

I think the world is pretty interesting, there's some stuff which is a bit ehhhh but it's nothing too major that's making me drop the game. I've played through most of the routes, I just have 2 left. I was thinking of getting Jack Jeanne since the art looks nice but I have no clue how it's like story wise

Posted
1 hour ago, Limbo said:

It's nothing special but I've started playing Olympia Soiree recently

I think the world is pretty interesting, there's some stuff which is a bit ehhhh but it's nothing too major that's making me drop the game. I've played through most of the routes, I just have 2 left. I was thinking of getting Jack Jeanne since the art looks nice but I have no clue how it's like story wise

Jack Jeanne have good story and I find gameplay very fun, I love game very much and I'm going to play it again soon. Art it's beautiful as well. 

Posted (edited)

Currently I'm re-reading Gin'iro, Haruka and working my way (slowly) through Evenicle 2. GinHaru's full English translation finally finished, and I cannot recommend this VN enough to anyone who likes charage / SoL. Fair warning though, it is LONG (about 55 hrs for me). Total length it's about as long as Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai even though it only has 5 routes instead of the 6 present in HoshiOri. Longest route (excluding common) took me just shy of 13 hours, shortest just a bit over 9 hours. 

 

Since December though I've powered through: Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai, Sankaku Ren'ai, Sorcery Jokers , Walkure Romanze , Magical Marriage Lunatics, Koiken Otome, Study Steady (and the FD Icha Icha Study), Amatarasu Riddle Star, Koisuru Natsu no Last Resort, re-read Fureraba and Making Lovers, Tsujidou-San no Jun'ai Road, Harukoi Otome, re-read Majikoi before I read Majikoi S, Love Sweets, Evenicle, My GF is the President, and re-read IxSheTell in that order...I've had a lot of free time so far this year. Only ones I'd outright recommend (ignoring re-reads) to nearly anyone would be Daitoshokan, Walkure Romanze and Tsujidou, the rest all have their arguments, if you liked Majikoi read S, if you like SoL you should read Study Steady, and maybe Love Sweets or Koisuru, action Sorcery Jokers and Koiken Otome (maybe).

Edited by CgSquall
  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Currently re-reading SakuSaku (Koi ga Saku Koro Sakura Doki) to write a review for it. Not the best, but a perfectly serviceable moege.

 

Since my last post I finished re-reading GinHaru, read KoiKari (disappointing, but I expected this cause I'm not a AsaProject fan), read Amanatsu - surprisingly good pure fluff SoL VN, if you liked Fureraba, Making Lovers, or Sugar Style's humor, it's written by the same person but lacks nearly any drama - and if it counts I read Hoshi Ori Yume Mirai - Rikka to Anata no 1-Shuunen Kinen, Icha Love Birthday (it's literally 15 minutes long).

  • 4 weeks later...
Posted

Currently reading Heart de Roommate

 

Since last post, I finished SakuSaku's reread, read Secret Agent, Ninki Seiyuu, Majo Koi Nikki, Mashiro-iro Symphony, Mashiro-iro Symphony Sana Edition, Hello Lady Complete, and Koiiro Chu! Lips. I'd outright recommend all of them except Secret Agent (only to action or mystery fans, it's a bit short and the routes are a bit uneven), and Koiiro Chu! Lips (although if you're a moege fan I think it's worth a read). Reviews for all are up on VNDB.

Posted
38 minutes ago, LostPomegranate said:

Currently reading Heart de Roommate

That was a pretty good one from what I remember. Have fun :)

I'm currently somewhere in the middle of reading Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai untranslated Switch version. I finished all "normal" routes for main and side heroines, and I'm now on first of the "true" routes - Kodachi's.

So far I'm loving it :) Lots of humor and feel-good moments, nice dynamics between characters - and all spiced with just the right amount of drama. I only wish it had more CGs, since there aren't too many - or perhaps they were saving them up for "true routes"? We'll see.

 

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted
On 6/16/2024 at 7:35 AM, fujoneko said:

Man, I haven't said anything in a while huh... Well, I haven't been reading as much as I used to, but I'm currently going through Blood Domination and Umineko (episode 6)

I'm still finishing Uzuki x Izayoi's route but I've been enjoying it a lot!

Actually finishing Blood Domination right now, literally! It was way better than I was expecting.

I wanna read more, like I used to, mmmm...

Posted
On 6/15/2024 at 6:27 PM, alexfang452 said:

I'm currently reading Mashiro-iro Symphony. Once I finish Airi's route, I will start Sana Edition. 

I started Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- a little over a week ago. Currently, I am 11 hours into it.

Mashiro-iro Symphony is a great VN. Every character was used well in the story, all of the routes are good, and the visuals look nice.

I think some people would have an issue with the pacing for some of the routes. Personally, I was too invested in the plot for it to bother me.
Overall Rating: 8/10

  • 2 weeks later...
Posted (edited)

I forgot to report, that I finished Daitoshokan no Hitsujikai (console version - including spinoff and FD) around a week ago ;)

Library-Party-2024-07-10-11-39-28.png

Overally it was very enjoyable read. With 40 endings and 90k lines it took some time, but I almost never felt bored - this VN created nice environment, where it was just enjoyable to spend time with the characters.

On 6/16/2024 at 6:53 PM, adamstan said:

Lots of humor and feel-good moments, nice dynamics between characters - and all spiced with just the right amount of drama.

Yeah, after finishing whole game I stand by that opinion :)

I also still find the amount of event CGs not enough - but that's a minor gripe.

As for "True routes", I think the naming might be a bit misleading. There is just one true route, and main heroine of that route is Nagi - but it also has optional branches for other girls. However, I'd treat that as an extra, since those endings aren't as fleshed out as the "normal" routes for the girls.

I'd also like to mention the console-exclusive route for new character - Kingyo. It was great, among the best routes in the whole game 💖 That's the second (or even third) time I encountered that phenomenon - the other one being Wakaba's route from Tenshin Ranman, (and perhaps also Chihiro from Kono Aozora ni Yakusoku o).

FanDisc provides very nice supplement for each heroine. And spinoff Houkago Shippo Days is just a nice short mini-VN in the same setting. Nothing great, but I liked it nevertheless.

**********************************************************

And currently I'm reading perhaps the most random VN so far - You & I. It's the last title by JAST/Tiare (best known for Sakura no Kisetsu, Meisou Toshi etc). It's also their first VN that ditched the command-based adventure game system, and went with Ikura GDL engine (Crescendo, Kazoku Keikaku, Yukizakura etc).

197530.jpg

This title got released in June 1999, so it's as old as Kanon. But the writing is more in-line with Sakura no Kisetsu ;) So far it seems to be very generic old-school charage, but for some weird reason I'm enjoying it :)

Edited by adamstan
Posted

Currently reading Hapymaher - it's a lot better than I expected from its premise / summary on VNDB.

 

Since my last post I've read: Crescendo (technically a reread since I read it 20+ years ago, posted a review of it here), Canvas 2, Yandere, Aikagi and Aikagi After days (Fandisc), Tenshi no Inai 12-gatsu, Kanojo no Seiiki, and Cerulean Days. I'd recommend Crescendo to nakige / moege fans, Canvas 2 and the Aikagi's to moege fans although Aikagi is pure SoL fluff. Cerulean Days is a pretty good EVN that could've done a lot more with its premise but is still a serviceable mystery-sort of. Yandere - if you don't mind some pretty dark stuff - is so bad that it's funny at times, but it is pretty terrible don't get me wrong. And Tenshi no Inai is both interesting and has the most insufferable MC in a VN I've read recently. Leaf really has the craziest range in their development portfolio.

Posted
On 6/30/2024 at 7:07 PM, alexfang452 said:

I started Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- a little over a week ago. Currently, I am 11 hours into it.

Mashiro-iro Symphony is a great VN. Every character was used well in the story, all of the routes are good, and the visuals look nice.

I think some people would have an issue with the pacing for some of the routes. Personally, I was too invested in the plot for it to bother me.
Overall Rating: 8/10

Today, I am going to start reading Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim

Since my post from nearly 2 weeks ago, I finished both Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- and NEKO-NIN exHeart. Sana Edition is a great addition to the original Mashiro-iro Symphony. It may take a long time before Sana and Shingo become a couple, but it makes the moments after the confession worth it. This is a really good romance VN.

As for NEKO-NIN exHeart, I would just say that it is decent. The characters are unmemorable but likeable, the art is good, and the music is acceptable. The story is just ninja catgirl antics and Haruki slowly warming up to them. Even though I am just following Haruki's daily life, the story never makes me forget that it is building up to something. And most of the plot being slice of life makes everything that happens near the end of the story stand out more. Also, I was a little moved by some of the scenes Haruki has with Yura and/or Tama. Someday, I will read the other VNs in this series. 

Posted (edited)

Yesterday I finished You & I. It was much better than I expected.

Even though it was very generic school-slice-of-life charage, somehow it turned out to be quite enjoyable. Also, I guess back then in 1999 all those cliches weren't as clichey as today - 25 years later ;)

The premise is simple - the protagonist missed few weeks of school because of traffic accident (he got hit by a car). He returns to school at the beginning of June, and there he meets (and possibly falls in love) with heroines - the game takes place over one month (and few days). There's no bigger overarching plot or story* - like elections in Princess Evangile or gliders in Konosora - just school slice of life. Sometimes MC complains that everything feels a bit unreal to him, like he was seeing a dream, but is there more to it?

You can definitely sense strong dating sim roots here - but it is IMO handled much better than, for example, first White Album which bored me to the point of dropping it. Here there are no "generic" repeatable scenes, and there's no map movement (yay!). However the common route is very long - basically the whole June is common route, and then there are relatively short endings. And there's insane amount of choices - well over 100 😮. I noticed is that many scenes in common route play out differently depending on your relatonship level with given heroine - there might be additional text, CG or different set of choices. Nice attention to detail.

*except in Sayaka's route.

Heroines are quite likeable, there's also usual funny MC's male friend - here he's named Fujita, and is class' president. Your usual Sunohara type - although he predates Sunohara :P. He reminded me of Makoto from Sakura no Kisetsu (which was also done by Tiare).

I started with Misaki's route.

88295.jpg

Class' vice-president, very friendly, gentle, caring and hard working girl. She seems to have crush on the MC right from the beginning. Her route is nice (if a bit naive) "first love" story. I also think that her H-scene was quite nicely and tactfuly written (for an old eroge).

88298.jpg

Haruka is Misaki's best friend, and has very different personality. She's very energetic, with some tsundere vibes. Keeps "fighting" with Fujita. Her route was a bit weird..

Spoiler

She falls in love with MC, but she also knows about Misaki's feelings, so she's conflicted. To make matters worse, she also has/had crush on Fujita. So one day she comes to MC's house under the pretext of studying, and kind of forces herself upon him - and then says something like "It's OK if you don't love me, I'll just go away now". Now, depending on your choices in the common route, the route splits into two versions. In the main one MC confesses to Haruka and they get together.

But there's also weird second ending, where they can't make a decision, and continue an unresolved love rectangle - Misaki likes MC, MC likes both Misaki and Haruka, Haruka likes MC, but cannot decide between him and Fujita - and Fujita stays completely indifferent towards her. It all ends with graduation CG (quite nice BTW), and Haruka running towards MC - I guess after trying to confess and being rejected by Fujita.

Haruka also appears as a final boss in Misaki's route - she confesses in tears to MC on the school roof, saying that she's OK to be just his secret fuckbuddy. Of course if you agree, you get kicked to the bad end ;)

88299.jpg

Asaki - quiet, mysterious girl. Her story has some nice twists and plays a bit with the reader and setting (let's just say that to enter the route you need a specific item - a book titled "The Existence of Parallel Dimensions").

Spoiler

At some point Asaki claims that she's an alien/person from another world, and perhaps MC is also the one, and that's why he feels "unreal"/out of place. I immediately thought about Ruu \^^/ from ToHeart2. But then they drop it - after all she's just an ordinary girl who felt lonely - especially since she's an orphan.

And I really loved her ending.

Spoiler

Marriage/family ending - sweet ❤️

Screenshot-41.jpg

Here I also encountered first weirdness of this game's system. In addition to making right choices in the common route, you have to select right prologue when starting new game (there are two) and make right choices there as well. Otherwise the route ends prematurely right after the H-scene - that's really cruel 😕

88300.jpg

Megumi - shy, introverted girl, member of library committee. Her route has the most drama.

Spoiler

She gets bullied because of her hair color. The bullying intensifies when she gets closer to the MC. Because of that, and because she already decided to change schools from the next term, she starts to avoid MC. You get the picture ;)

88301.jpg

Miyu senpai - an idol with pretty zealous fan-club of self-proclaimed bodyguards in school. I quite liked her scenes in common route, but her ending was rather disappointing 😕

And finally there's Sayaka - MC's little sister

88302.jpg

I spent over 10 hours of constant replays trying to get this route! And let me tell you - it's almost impossible without walkthrough. There's even a review over on EGS where someone complains that they couldn't get that route. And there's no walkthrough available on any of the usual sites, like seiya-saiga or sagaoz. I finally found one on some archived page from 2001. And yeah - many choices were rather counterintuitive. Basically it seems like instead of focusing only on Sayaka, you have to keep balanced "relationship score" between all heroines, and cannot neglect anyone, at least in the first half of comon route.

However the route was interesting, and quite meta. (Heavy spoilers below)

Spoiler

It start as your typical imouto route - characters falling in forbidden love. However just when they're already naked in MCs bed and are about to have sex, he's unable to cross that boundary. "Incest, huh... If only you weren't my sister..." - and after thinking that he blacks out, and wakes up in hospital, with the same CG we saw right at the beginning of game with Sayaka, Misaki and Fujita next to his bed.

YO-03a.png

But Sayaka calls him "Ryou-kun" instead of "Onii-chan". WTF? He's utterly confused.

And then it turns out he was right, when he was feeling like in a dream during common route - basically the whole game up to this point was MC's dream he was seeing while being in coma after the accident. And Sayaka was not his sister but actually his girlfriend (also, right before the accident they were on the verge of breakup). Then MC leaves hospital, we get final H-scene, and they rebuild their relationship. Whew...

I briefly mentioned that when talking about Misaki's route, but generally I liked H-scenes in this VN. There's only one relatively short scene for each heroine, and I think they are quite tactfuly written, especially for old eroge. Of course there are some usual cliches, but nevertheless it doesn't feel like characters got entirely replaced by their porn stunt doubles. They're having sex, not acting out an JAV scenario - which was my main complaint towards many H-scenes in VNs, and what steered me towards console/all-ages editions ;)

Also, for each route we get very nice "pillow talk"/"morning after" scene ❤️ Just have a look at this Misaki's morning CG:

Spoiler

Screenshot-39.jpg

Now for the downsides. This VN is pretty bad when it comes to engine/QoL side. With this insane amount of choices, and one very difficult to get route, you get

  • no backlog
  • only unconditional skip mode
  • only 9(!) save slots, and loading a save always rewinds to the beginning of the scene
  • no keyboard support at all

There were also some typo's / editing errors (like repeated words or characters) here and there.

Also, the game is only partially voiced. Basically, common route is unvoiced, except for one scene (for each heroine) during sports festival. And only main heroines are voiced. The voices themselves aren't great, but that's quite old title, so I guess it can be forgiven. The music was nice.

Considering all of the above - on one hand, quite enjoyable content, but on the other - tedious gameplay, I rated this VN at 7/10

And now, can someone tell me WTH am I writing this wall of text about an obscure 25 years old moege nobody will ever play? 😅

Also, for posterity - Here's the walkthrough

Edited by adamstan
Posted (edited)

I'm late to the party again, but I just started playing GINKA.

(I found pretty good deal on DLSite - weak JPY combined with some discount coupon that I had meant that it was 40% off compared to Steam price)

It looks great, and after two hours it seems to be ticking almost all the boxes for me ;) It seems to be the VN that could be put on a shelf next to Natsuzora Kanata and Summer Pockets, both of which I loved. (I haven't read ISLAND yet...)

 

PS For my first playthrough I'm going to read in Japanese. Then perhaps I will check out the translation afterwards.

Edited by adamstan
Posted

Nukitashi
It is a million times better than what the premise suggested
 

Spoiler

Route Fumiko is the best one really
It shows that is the route the autors prefered
Rei best FS girl

 

Posted
On 7/22/2024 at 3:15 PM, adamstan said:

I'm late to the party again, but I just started playing GINKA.

(I found pretty good deal on DLSite - weak JPY combined with some discount coupon that I had meant that it was 40% off compared to Steam price)

It looks great, and after two hours it seems to be ticking almost all the boxes for me ;) It seems to be the VN that could be put on a shelf next to Natsuzora Kanata and Summer Pockets, both of which I loved. (I haven't read ISLAND yet...)

Aaand... finished :)

The story is nice, even though it seems a bit like "the best of" compilation album from different "summer & island" nakiges - I saw familiar tropes from things like Summer Pockets, Natsuzora Kanata or AIR, but nevertheless liked it. However I feel like the writing and pacing is a bit too messy, with constant flashbacks, visions and jumps - especially in later chapters, which somewhat weakens the emotional punch of some scenes/arcs. Still had decent amount of tearjerkers, so I won't complain too much ;) But the script would definitely benefit from a few more clean-up iterations ;)

Art is good, characters likeable, and the music is great.

All in all, I think it gets an 8 from me :)

 

Posted
On 7/12/2024 at 5:15 PM, alexfang452 said:

Today, I am going to start reading Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim

Since my post from nearly 2 weeks ago, I finished both Mashiro-iro Symphony -Sana Edition- and NEKO-NIN exHeart. Sana Edition is a great addition to the original Mashiro-iro Symphony. It may take a long time before Sana and Shingo become a couple, but it makes the moments after the confession worth it. This is a really good romance VN.

As for NEKO-NIN exHeart, I would just say that it is decent. The characters are unmemorable but likeable, the art is good, and the music is acceptable. The story is just ninja catgirl antics and Haruki slowly warming up to them. Even though I am just following Haruki's daily life, the story never makes me forget that it is building up to something. And most of the plot being slice of life makes everything that happens near the end of the story stand out more. Also, I was a little moved by some of the scenes Haruki has with Yura and/or Tama. Someday, I will read the other VNs in this series. 

I am now 12 hours into Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim. Just reached the "Dating Sim" part of the game. Before that, there were a bunch of flashbacks of the protagonist's life in this academy before a plague ruined the world. Even though I enjoyed it, I did feel like we were spending too much time with them. Thankfully, the protagonist finally reaches the ruined academy where he can find the souls of his former classmates. It wasn't easy as my choices either led to death or the protagonist getting closer to one of the girls. Speaking of the girls, the story did a good job of making them likable. Even Lyse, a girl who likes to gossip and mess around, did not bother me that much. Additionally, the protagonist Uzo is actually a character. 

Just be warned that this VN is not for everyone. There is some scary imagery in here. 

Posted

Just finished Seven Days (With You) and overall it was a 6/10 for me

The overarching story ending was a little lackluster. Feels like they just used the fact that its a fantasy world to do some deux ex machina type shit and resolve the plot. 

The romantic good ends for some of the individual girls was really the best part overall. Nene and Ichiru best girls

Posted (edited)
On 7/26/2024 at 4:53 PM, alexfang452 said:

I am now 12 hours into Black Heaven: A Necromantic Dating Sim. Just reached the "Dating Sim" part of the game. Before that, there were a bunch of flashbacks of the protagonist's life in this academy before a plague ruined the world. Even though I enjoyed it, I did feel like we were spending too much time with them. Thankfully, the protagonist finally reaches the ruined academy where he can find the souls of his former classmates. It wasn't easy as my choices either led to death or the protagonist getting closer to one of the girls. Speaking of the girls, the story did a good job of making them likable. Even Lyse, a girl who likes to gossip and mess around, did not bother me that much. Additionally, the protagonist Uzo is actually a character. 

Just be warned that this VN is not for everyone. There is some scary imagery in here. 

After I finished Black Heaven, I decided to start Sucker For Love. I kinda wish I didn't since this VN would have been perfect to read in October. That's what I get for not looking at the Steam tags again. Anyway, I just saw one of the endings in Chapter 1. This chapter did not forget to remind me that this VN is a horror game with one moment making me jump. 

As for Black Heaven, I enjoyed it. The story's dark elements were not distracting, the characters were more interesting than I thought they would be (especially Lyse and the protagonist), and none of the endings gave me a feeling of complete satisfaction. Then again, after remembering the current state of their world, what ending would make me happy without feeling like a copout?

I enjoyed seeing the protagonist's experience at Itzon Academy. Seeing the different ways immortality is being explored was interesting. 7/10

Edited by alexfang452
Added score

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